摘要：Life in urban areas presents special challenges for maternal child-care practices. This study used data from a representative survey of households with children less than 3 years of age in Accra, Ghana, to test a number of hypothesized constraints to child care. These constraints included both maternal factors such as education, employment, marital status, age, and health status; and household-level factors such as income, calorie availability, quality of housing and asset ownership, availability of services, household size, and crowding. An age-specific child-care index was created using recall data on maternal child feeding practices and use of preventive health services. A hygiene index was created from spot-check observations of proxies of hygiene behaviors. Multivariate analyses showed that maternal schooling was the most consistent constraint to both the care and the hygiene index. Limited household resources such as poor housing quality, few assets, and limited access to water, garbage, and sanitation services, on the other hand, were constraints only for hygiene practices. These household-level factors as well as income and food avail-ability did not appear to limit the mothers' ability to feed their children appro-priately and to take them for immunization or growth monitoring.
